When you hear people say they prefer "high quality" content, what do they mean? What is it that makes some posts better than others?
@steemplus is a daily newspaper that pays you to find high quality content on Steemit. But what makes content “high quality” in the first place? It’s necessary for us to explain this so you at least have an idea of what we want to feature in the newspaper.
When going through the list of posts that our readers are recommending, we typically prefer content that follows these points.
We prefer content that...
1. Is Lengthy
We like to feature content that has a lot words. But these words are important. We make sure that the author doesn’t just draw out their post just to make it seem longer, but actually packs a lot of substance into the entire post.
2. Uses Visual Media
People like articles with a lot of pictures. Humans are visual learners, and a post with no photos or videos usually bores us. Try to find posts with aesthetically pleasing images, videos, gifs, graphs, charts, etc.
3. Uses Proper Grammar
Nobody likes to read something that sounds like a five year old wrote it. Try to stay away from posts that use LOL, OMG, or misspell a lot of words. However, if the post is meant to have some humor where those words are appropriate then that could be an exception.
4. Utilizes Good Formatting
Are the words too far apart? Are the images in the wrong place? Are there words were there shouldn’t be words? Are the headers and subheaders consistent sizes? When recommending your next post, make sure the layout looks good and everything complements each other.
5. Is Readable
Try not to choose posts that have paragraphs which wear down the reader’s eyes. Yes, we prefer long content, but content that is just one big block of text just won’t do. Sorry. Humans are scanners. 90% of the time, we don’t sit through and read every single word of an article. We typically look for key points and sentences and filter out that information from the rest. So look for posts that use bullets, have a lot of white space, has bold and italicized words, and break up paragraphs.
6. Has a Good Reputation
No, no, no. Not the author’s reputation, the reputation of the post. How do people react in the comments? Do they like it? Do they hate it? Has the post received any flags? If so, then why? Look for content that people enjoy reading.
7. Provides Value
Does it solve a problem? Does it answer a question? Does it provide entertainment? Does it make people laugh? Make sure the readers of that post are able to get something out of it.
A post that checks off all of these points would be the optimal recommendation.
Keep in mind that these don’t all have to be the case all of the time. For example, sometimes we’ll choose posts that don’t have any images, but feature posts strictly for what they provide in terms of value.
With that said, there are some things we don’t like and won’t feature. We won’t feature content that is...
1. Plagiarised
Copying and pasting stuff and calling it your own is one of the worst things you can do. Make sure the post that you’re recommending isn’t a duplicate from somewhere else. If you want to be absolutely positive, there are plagiarism checkers on the internet that will scan for similar words from different places on the internet.
2. Filled With Swear Words
There are some exceptions to this. If the post is genuinely funny, then we might feature it. But nine times out of ten, people don’t like reading stuff that excessively cusses.
3. Pointless
Why did they write what they wrote? What’s the point to it? Was it to try and make us laugh, smile, scared, entertained, or mad? If it doesn’t have a clear purpose, it shouldn’t have been written.
4. Untrustworthy
If the author is posting false information, we won’t feature it. It’s that simple.
5. Offensive
If the post makes people feel worse after reading it than when we started it, you’re not helping anybody. Try finding content that lifts people up instead of putting people down.
6. Controversial
There are exceptions that can be made for this. If the post gives unbiased facts, then we may not mind. However, if the post is completely skewed to one side of a coin, we most likely will not feature it.
7. Boring
If the author doesn’t use any voice or enthusiasm and sounds like they’re half asleep or possibly even dead, then please don’t recommend their posts. However, if the author is writing something that is strictly informational and a voice isn’t appropriate, then that could be an exception.
And as I said before, the post you recommend doesn't have to cover every single one of these points, but a post that does cover these points would be ideal, and would be more likely to be featured.
So now you know. Hopefully you have a better understanding of what we like and what we don’t like to feature in the Steemplus newspaper. If you’re a writer, then this information could be very practical for you as well.
If you’ve never heard of Steemplus before, then you are missing out! Everyday Steemplus features high quality content. In the comments section, you recommend good content. And if we think our readers would want to read it, then we’ll feature it. If we feature content that you recommended, you receive some of the money that the Steemplus newspaper generates. To learn more, check out the main account: @steemplus